Started the new year out right by making art! A Piece of Me is a new art exhibit from Yarn Bombing Los Angeles and Dreameco Crafts (Amy Bauer and Richard Hecht) along with our knitting guru Britta Amundsen and other yblaers opens January 27. And once again I’m yarnbombing a tree!

The best toy I’ve ever made for a 1-year-old or younger has to be a fabric triangle. The first little boy I made one for is now six. Where did the time go! Anyway he still owns and loves his triangle. His is a monster. My most recent one was for my youngest nephew. He grabbed it and ran! This time I cut letters out of fabric and put on one each side.

Here are some pictures of the finished project. It is mostly filled with polyfil and a bit of fabric scraps. I used all my polyfil and do not plan on buying more. I have been saving scrap fabric, threads and old socks to use as stuffing.

Like this:

This year I was seeing my immediate family on my mother’s birthday and my husband’s aunt’s birthday. Both in early October. I decided to let bring presents not only for them, but also for a young niece and nephew how have birthdays in August and September. Plus Christmas presents for all the nieces and nephews. Phew that was a lot of gift giving sewing! Luckily everything was small and did not take up much room in the luggage.

Birthday presents:

For my niece I made her a hedgehog from a Jo Carter pattern as seen in Simply Sewing (UK sewing magazine I love). Like I stated in my last post, I don’t usually follow patterns for stuffed animals. But these are really some whimsical super cute stuffed animals.

My niece and her hedgehog. Plus bow in her hair!

For my nephew I made a triangle with letters on it. He immediately grabbed it and ran off with it. Perfect size. Now if he wasn’t so quick I could have got some more pictures of him with it.

My nephew, still holding onto his triangle!

For both my mom and aunt I created their own potholder/hot plate trivet out of fabric. I also cut out and sewed an individual design to each. For my mother I made a simple heart that I used a wide blanket stitch to attach to the top of it. For our aunt I drew a dove, used a little bit of fabric marker to outline a branch it was holding and hand stitched it onto the top. This took some time. I drew my design out of paper first and used that as a pattern piece to cut out the fabric. Then trimmed the fabric as needed.

Front side of potholder. Dove cut out.

Christmas presents:

Two nephews equal two double bow ties that match! If the family every is able to coordinate then I will imagine both of them wearing their bow ties the same time. I won’t hold my breath through.

For my nieces. The little one got hair bows that match the bow ties. She immediately took them apart. I fixed them, but she is in the take apart stage so these may need some fixing again when I next visit them. The older one got a little bag I constructed out of interior design fabric. She likes dark colors so I made it black/auburn and dark purple. It can be used quite literally for anything. I think she will find use for it. I know I have for each little bag I’ve made myself!

I’ll have to work on getting some pictures of these things. Seems I was in such a hurry making I didn’t document! That happens with most of my creations. I make them and pass them onto others without ever taking any images. Haven’t we all though : )

Now I just have two more birthdays and three more Christmas plus Hanukkah presents to make for 2017! Better get back to my sewing machine!

Like this:

For my nephew’s birthday I decided to sew him a lion. I followed a pattern in Issue 21 of the UK magazine Simply Sewing by Jo Carter of Two Owls Design. Of course I did a few things my own way. I used fabric I had, made everything the same fabric, added buttons for eyes instead of safety eyes, sewed them and the mouth on before I was finished and then made the lion a vest out of felt without a pattern. I added buttons to the vest that seemed royal. My first stuffed animal made from someone else’s pattern. I think it came out great. My nephew likes his lion and our cat does too.

Like this:

This year for our second wedding anniversary we kept it local and simple. We went to dinner in the neighboring town, walkable. Somewhere we both love that is a bit pricey. I made my husband a cozy for his french press out. Using two interior design fabric samples, some extra trim from another project and a tiny bit of velcro left over from projects so old I was surprised I had any left! It can out so perfect that it not only kept the coffee hot for his second cup, that it works on the new french press he bought after the original one cracked and then broke. Maybe one day I will start working with glass so I can just make him a new one when this one cracks. Probably not. ha ha